"One of the most thrilling things about living in Paris was the iconic architecture that formed the backdrop to my everyday life. My son’s part-time nounou—nanny—was married to a policeman who lived in the gendarmerie behind the Place des Vosges. This meant that every afternoon I turned up to find my three-year-old playing in the sandbox in a 17th-century park surrounded by vaulted stone arcades and historic mansions. What better start to life could he have than whizzing down the slide in front of Victor Hugo’s former townhouse (No.6) and eating ice cream outside the birthplace of Madame de Sévigné (No.1 bis)?"

The only way to really experience a city is to have lived there, become part of it. I really need to do that again somewhere else soon.